Member-only story
The Many Widowed American Mechanic Arrested For Marrying Too Many Women In 1890s Mexico
A man faced charges of marrying too many times after he was married a 13th time following 12 wives dying in the previous four years
The institution of marriage is a vow technically meant to be a lifelong commitment to a spouse. While some marriages end in divorce, others last blissfully until one person passes away. In some cases, the surviving member of the relationship takes on a new spouse, but it’s not usually something that they repeat often during the course of their remaining life. However, in 1892, an American mechanic was arrested in Mexico after authorities discovered he had married 13 women in four years, after each previous wife had first passed away from natural causes — because his matrimonial proclivity broke a local law.
The July 6, 1892 issue of the San Francisco Examiner reported the legal troubles of American-born Frank C. Lawson, a mechanic living in Zacatecas, Mexico. He was arrested for marrying too many women, but it wasn’t that he was a polygamist. Rather, he married 13 women in succession over the course of four years after they each successively and rapidly died of what was believed to be natural causes — still violating an old Mexican law on marriage quota.
